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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27854090">A Wrong Turn At Hawaii</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/fieryphrazes/pseuds/fieryphrazes'>fieryphrazes</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>MASH (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>BJ Goes To Maine, Canon-Typical Cole Porter Singing, Divorce, Emotional Baggage, First Kiss, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Hawkeye has issues, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Juggling, Love Confessions, M/M, Morning After, Post-Canon, Reunions, Sharing a Bed, i love it when they yell at each other so sue me, it's better for everyone that way, peg is a lesbian now, the boys are fighting!!!</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 22:40:10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,339</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27854090</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/fieryphrazes/pseuds/fieryphrazes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>When BJ showed up in Crabapple Cove, Hawkeye was so furious he almost forgot to be happy. </p><p>“Oh, no, not you,” Hawkeye pointed, backing away from the open door. “You’re supposed to be in sunny California!” </p><p>BJ looked around thoughtfully. </p><p>“Must have taken a wrong turn at Hawaii.” He shrugged and grinned. “Is that any way to welcome an old army buddy?” </p><p> </p><p>6 months after returning from Korea, Hawkeye is struggling to recover from the war and from BJ Hunnicutt. When BJ shows up on his doorstep, Hawkeye tries to convince him he's better off forgetting all about him -- but BJ has other ideas.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>B. J. Hunnicutt/Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>112</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A Wrong Turn At Hawaii</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When BJ showed up in Crabapple Cove, Hawkeye was so furious he almost forgot to be happy.</p><p>“Oh, no, not you,” Hawkeye pointed, backing away from the open door. “You’re supposed to be in sunny California!”</p><p>BJ looked around thoughtfully.</p><p>“Must have taken a wrong turn at Hawaii.” He shrugged and grinned. “Is that any way to welcome an old army buddy?”</p><p> </p><p>Hawkeye was already halfway to the kitchen, so BJ stepped inside and followed. He heard cabinets clanging closed as he turned the corner.</p><p>“I just can’t get rid of you, can I?” Hawkye asked. “I schlep all the way back from Korea – strategically picking a point as far away from Mill Valley as possible – and you show up here!”</p><p>BJ’s grin started to falter.</p><p>“Hawk, if I didn’t know better, I’d think you weren’t happy to see me.”</p><p>“I just thought you’d have kicked a nasty habit like me by now,” Hawkeye said as he filled two martini glasses.</p><p>“Oh, I’m –“ BJ grimaced. “No martini for me. Can’t stomach the stuff anymore.”</p><p>Hawkeye toasted BJ before throwing back both glasses, one after the other, with a wince.</p><p> </p><p>“You know, I understand you hanging around with a nutcase like me back at the 4077,” Hawkeye said in his usual brassy tone. “But now? Here? When you’ve got a whole country and life and family? What the hell are you doing here, Beej?”</p><p>“I wanted to see you, Hawk,” BJ said, beginning to work himself into a temper to match Hawkeye’s. “I hoped you’d want to see me, since you’re the best friend I’ve ever had and it’s been 6 months and I miss you like crazy. That’s all.”</p><p>“Oh,” Hawkeye seemed stumped. “That’s all?”</p><p>BJ seemed to stand down a bit. He leaned back against the kitchen counter and crossed his arms.</p><p>“You’re a real piece of work, you know that? I fly all the way across the country, show up at your front door, and you have the nerve to yell at me!”</p><p>Hawkeye shrugged, and BJ was so happy to see those shoulders in action that his anger slipped away.</p><p>“I’m a mess, you know,” Hawkeye said. “Have been ever since I got back. Can’t sleep, can barely operate. Appendixes are all I’m good for now. My dad’s worried sick about me, I can tell. Jesus, why am I telling you all this? You just got off a plane, you must be hungry or thirsty or tired or...”</p><p>BJ cut him off.</p><p>“I’m fine. I’m here to talk. So keep talking.”</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>“You must be BJ.”</p><p>“Thank god someone’s happy to see me,” BJ said as he shook Daniel’s hand.</p><p>“I’d know that smile anywhere, I’ve heard about it enough,”</p><p>“Dad!” Hawkeye interrupted.</p><p>“Fine, fine. I’ll let you boys catch up.” Daniel winked at BJ as he turned away from Hawkeye and left the kitchen.</p><p> </p><p>Hawkeye excused himself a few minutes later to do god knows what. BJ wandered into a cozy wood-paneled living room where Daniel was reading by a fire.</p><p>“It’s a good thing you got here when you did,” Daniel said solemnly as BJ sat down. “He’s been in a bad way ever since he got back. So isolated.” Daniel shook his head. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think he missed the war.”</p><p>“No way,” BJ fired back. “It was hell. The only way we got through it was sticking together. Maybe he misses that. But he doesn’t miss the war.”</p><p>Daniel nodded.</p><p>“You’re right. I think he misses you more than you know.”</p><p>BJ’s lower lip twisted. He broke eye contact with Daniel, preferring to look at the crackling fire.</p><p>“I think we’re in the same boat,” he said quietly, sneaking a sidelong look at Daniel, who just considered him carefully.</p><p>“At some point you’ll have to jump overboard and swim back to dry land. Together or not.”</p><p>BJ didn’t know what to say. After a moment, Daniel slapped his knee and stood up.</p><p>“I’d better start dinner. Lord knows Hawk’s not going to.”</p><p>He left BJ sitting by the fire, thinking about what Daniel had said, and the look on Hawkeye’s face when he’d opened the door, and how for the first time in 6 months, BJ felt like he was drowning and somehow that was a relief.</p><p> </p><p>There was a soft knock behind BJ. When he turned, Hawkeye looked sheepish.</p><p>“You run away from goodbyes, apparently I run away from hellos,” he said as he sat next to BJ. “Between the two of us, you could almost have half a conversation. I’m sorry, Beej. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”</p><p>BJ smiled and tossed an arm around Hawkeye’s shoulder.</p><p>“I could start listing your faults, but we’ve only got an hour or two before dinner,” BJ said. They’d always leaned back on ribbing each other. If they couldn’t do that now, he wouldn’t know what to say. BJ felt relief when Hawkeye’s face cleared a bit. At least they still had this.</p><p> </p><p>“BJ, I have bad news,” Daniel called from the kitchen. “That sofa’s about 6 inches shorter than you are, and it’s got more lumps than not.”</p><p>“I don’t mind, really,” BJ called back, not wanting to impose. He had showed up out of the blue, after all.</p><p>“Absolutely not!” Hawkeye said cheerily, bounding up off the sofa. “You’ll bunk with me, it’ll be like old times. Sharing all our secrets in the dead of night, waking up in each other’s arms,” Hawkeye said with that outrageous twinkle in his eye.</p><p>It was an old familiar act, but BJ couldn’t bring himself to play along. The vaudeville routine hit a little too close to home all of a sudden.</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>It had been a long time since BJ was cold. Really cold. California wasn’t always sunny, Hawkeye had been wrong about that, but it was never like this. Like Maine in February. Hawkeye snuffled in his sleep and turned over, and BJ took his chance. He wriggled up behind Hawkeye, knees behind knees, the tops of his feet touching Hawkeye’s soles. He wrapped an arm around his middle and rested his forehead against the nape of Hawkeye’s neck. Within minutes, Hawkeye’s warmth had leeched into BJ, with the covers pulled tight around their shoulders so no heat escaped.</p><p>Hawkeye sighed. BJ hummed a soft response.</p><p>“I’m no good for you, you know,”</p><p>Hawkeye’s words took BJ by surprise. When had he woken up?</p><p>“I’d like to make up my own mind about that, if it’s all the same to you,” BJ replied.</p><p>Hawkeye shifted in BJ’s arms, turning halfway to face him and propping himself up on an elbow.</p><p>“Sometimes I think you’d be better off if you’d never met me,” he said quietly, the usual bravado gone. “If you’d gotten assigned somewhere else and never even seen me. I spoiled you.”</p><p>BJ tightened his grip around Hawkeye’s waist.</p><p>“What are you talking about? You didn’t spoil anything. You saved me. I wouldn’t have made it out of there alive without you,” he pleaded with Hawkeye to understand, but Hawkeye shook his head.</p><p>“Look at you,” he said. “You’re here with me in little old Crabapple Cove, Maine, your family’s thousands of miles away. I took you away from them. I had you all those years and they didn’t, and now I’ve got you again and they don’t.”</p><p>BJ didn’t like the desperate edge in Hawkeye’s voice.</p><p>“Hawk, Hawk, listen to me. Listen! You didn’t take me away from anyone. The army did that, at first. And now... it’s more complicated than that. It’s not your fault.”</p><p>Hawkeye shook his head, pulling away from BJ.</p><p>“I’m no good for you, Beej! Can’t you see that! I’m driving myself crazy, and I can’t stop myself from grabbing onto you, and I’m gonna pull you down here with me.”</p><p>BJ was sitting up now, as Hawkeye tried to pull away from him. He grabbed onto Hawkeye’s wrist, keeping him from fleeing the bed entirely.</p><p>“Hawkeye, will you calm down and listen! You’re not pulling me anywhere. I’m pulling myself. And you’re not taking me away from anyone,” BJ paused and braced himself for what he had to say. “Peg left.”</p><p>“She left? Left you? The captain of all dreamboats? Has she lost her mind?”</p><p>“I think she found it,” BJ gave Hawkeye a wry smile. “She learned a lot while I was gone; she had to. And I learned a lot, too, things I didn’t expect to find out.”</p><p>“Yeah, you’re telling me. I could have done without some of the bloodier lessons, though.”</p><p>“The hardest one was something I put off until I came back,” BJ looked at Hawkeye meaningfully, as though trying to prompt him. Hawkeye looked around the empty room and shrugged.</p><p>“I’m a captive audience, Beej, so go on and tell me,” he said, tugging on the wrist that BJ still had a grip on.</p><p>BJ took a deep breath and then let it out.</p><p>“God, this is harder than I thought it would be,” he said, turning his face away from Hawkeye.</p><p> </p><p>“Peg has this friend,” he said. Hawkeye cocked his head at the seeming change of topic. “They got real close while I was gone, and Peg got used to having her around. She says it didn’t happen right away. Just, at a certain point, she realized that it was Val who she was missing most of the time, not me. And she kept writing, and trying to drop hints, but I never really got it. Not until I got home.”</p><p>Hawkeye stayed silent, not wanting to interrupt a story he didn’t understand yet.</p><p>“Peg said she thought it would all go back to normal, once I was back. That Val would go back to being just a friend, and I would be there for all the day-to-day things. But that’s not what happened.” BJ paused for a moment, checking to see that Hawkeye was still listening.</p><p>“She told me a couple months ago,” he continued. “They got an apartment together in the city. Erin’s spending one week with them, one with me. I think the hardest part,” BJ stopped for a moment, gathering his thoughts or his courage. “The hardest part is knowing that she had the guts to go get what she wanted. And I didn’t. All that time, I didn’t have the courage to reach over to you.” BJ shook his head.</p><p>Hawkeye was stunned silent.</p><p>“So I’m reaching now, Hawk. Please say something,” BJ pleaded.</p><p>“Beej... I’m a mess. You know that,”</p><p>“That’s not an answer and you know it,” BJ’s voice sounded rough. “Maybe we’re both a mess. Maybe we can be messes together. I promise not to clean you up too much, if you do the same for me. Now you know you’re not taking me away from anyone else. Can you try to understand, Hawk? Can you feel even a little bit of what I’m feeling?”</p><p>“A little bit? Beej, I’ve been in love with you for the last 2 years! I think I can do better than a little bit, I’m just not sure I should!”</p><p>BJ’s grin appeared in an instant, and he enveloped Hawkeye in a bear hug.</p><p>“Hold on, hold on,” Hawkeye pushed BJ back a few inches. “Not sure I should, don’t forget that part!”</p><p>BJ gave Hawkeye his few inches of space, but kept an arm wound around him, and kept that angelic smile on his face.</p><p> </p><p>“God, I missed you,” Hawkeye breathed out.</p><p>“Hawk,” BJ said softly, as Hawkeye leaned toward him, one hand on BJ’s neck and the other hovering nervously near his shoulder.</p><p>“Beej, what if it all falls apart?” Hawkeye whispered. BJ just laughed.</p><p>“It’s already fallen apart, and we’ve stitched it back up more times than I can count. I’ll always stitch you up, Hawk. If you ever need it.”</p><p>Hawkeye nodded at BJ, smiling for what felt like the first time in 6 months.</p><p>Slowly, they each leaned in, closing the gap between them.</p><p> </p><p>Hawkeye came up for breath first.</p><p>“Beej, I can’t breathe, give a guy a break,”</p><p>“No,” was the muffled reply, as BJ moved on to Hawkeye’s neck.</p><p>“Oh – that tickles – we really need to talk about that caterpillar living on your face,” Hawkeye said through his laughter. BJ stopped abruptly.</p><p>“The mustache stays,” he growled.</p><p>“Well, he was there first. Fair’s fair,” Hawkeye shrugged his shoulders, as BJ pulled him back in.</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>A distant voice was the first thing BJ heard, belting a rowdy rendition of <em>Anything Goes</em><span>. He never imagined he’d miss Cole Porter so much. As BJ got up, he saw that Hawkeye had laid out his old red robe on the bed. BJ slipped it on and headed downstairs. </span></p><p>
  <span>In the kitchen, Hawkeye was juggling three brown eggs, as Daniel looked on in bemused concern. When Hawkeye noticed BJ, one of the eggs went splat, and Hawkeye was a flurry of limbs trying to catch the other two safely. Eventually they made it into a frying pan and sizzled away. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>As Hawkeye alternated between humming, scatting and emphatically belting out certain lyrics, BJ looked sheepishly at Daniel, who just smiled over his coffee cup. He really looks like Hawkeye, BJ thought to himself, or Hawkeye looks like him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Daniel patted BJ’s hand where it rested on the counter, and </span>
  <span>he f</span>
  <span>inally relaxed. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Hawkeye moved on to </span>
  <em>Let’s </em>
  <em>Do It</em>
  <span>, throwing a saucy wink over his shoulder to BJ, who couldn’t imagine a better sight in the morning. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>They’d have plenty of time to figure it </span>
  <span>all </span>
  <span>out, BJ told himself. The important part was reaching out. </span>
  <span>And he’d finally done it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eggs safely scrambled, Hawkeye pulled BJ to his feet and led him around the kitchen in an over-the-top box step, singing all the while. BJ felt lighter on his feet than ever; and he couldn’t help but chime in as Hawkeye squawked, “</span>
  <em>People say in Boston even beans do it... </em>
  <em>Let’s do it... Let’s fall in love!” </em>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>My first MASH fic! It grabbed me in the middle of the night and wouldn't let me go. Would love feedback - did I get their voices right? I've never used so many exclamation marks, but they have a way of shouting at each other... </p><p>&amp; I know I've read other fics where Peg's new partner is named Val. I'm not sure if it's one person's headcanon, or fanon at this point? Either way, no disrespect is meant in using the name, and I'm grateful to the person who created her. I thought about coming up with my own random name but Val suited my purposes well.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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